Did you celebrate the New Year? You wonder why I ask this question now? Well, because I don't mean the holiday which is celebrated on December 31 / January 1. The one I mean is celebrated on the day of the astronomical Northward equinox, which usually occurs on March 21 or the previous/following day depending on where it is observed. (The fist day of spring and the beginning of the year in the Iranian calendar.) What I am talking about is Nowruz or – as many would refer to it – the Persian New Year.
Nowruz is observed by Iran, Afghanistan, Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Syria, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and other ethnic and religious groups worldwide, such as the Kurdish diaspora, Zoroastrians and many more. It is also unofficially observed by other countries, for example, Bosnia and Macedonia. Therefore, Nowruz has many different spellings, depending on the language spoken by the different ethnic groups.
In 2009, on a UN meeting held in Abu Dhabi, Nowruz was officially registered on the UNESCO List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. With the description of a spring festival with Persian origin which has been celebrated for over 3,000 years Nowruz was recognized by the UN's General Assembly in 2009 as the International Day of Nowruz.
The reason I am writing about this special day is that on Wednesday, March 20 (this year's date of the equinox) I was invited to celebrate it with some friends. We gathered in the apartment of Shirin's aunt and had a very special Persian dinner consisting of an exquisite chicken marinated with saffron and cooked with tomatoes. Along with some tasty Persian rice and a nice tomato salad with cucumbers. The dinner was accompanied by some delicious red wine. For dessert we had some kind of cool and sweet rice, which was prepared with rose water (very refreshing and tasteful, I have to say), and I brought some Baklava with pistachios.
Not only the food was lovely, also the decoration has been very charming. Shirin's aunt arranged everything very neatly and as far as I can remember we also had almost all of the Hafta-Sin items. We had a mirror – symbolizing the sky, candles – symbolizing the fire, painted eggs – as a symbol of fertility, ...
All in all, it was such a peaceful and pleasant evening – nothing like my actual New Year's Eve – and I am really looking forward to celebrate Nowruz next year!
The evening was very nice and we had a really great time. It made me miss Iran even more (good thing, because I felt like I was in Iran). We definitely have to celebrate it next year! Really looking forward to it!
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